Sunday 17/02/2019 - Windmill Open - Match Lake

The weather is staying mild but some wind forecast, not good for this venue. Fifteen fishing today, the numbers being swelled due to the Severn bridge tolls being scrapped me thinks. Peg 21 was pulled for the golden peg which did stand a good chance of winning. I was hoping to be at the car park end pegs 24 or 25 so to have the wind off my back. Into the draw box and out came peg 2. This peg was right in the wind which I knew would be a problem. For company I had John Clark, who broke his Daiwa number six section and was lucky to get the remainder out of the Lake. John subsequently FOE'd.

I set up the Ronnie rig which got trashed in the process, so not a good start. The only other rig was the usual 4x16 Winter Titan to fish at top-set plus 4 barrels. I was expecting to catch a few Carp here today, I started by cupping in some micro and LR's and with a single on the hook and was soon losing a foul hooked Carp. I started to loose feed LR's over the top and started to get bites from tiny Ronnies. Then the wind picked up totally spoiling presentation with the float being driven by the wind. I persevered with the pole and was rewarded by a 4 lb Carp. The wind got so bad a Ronnie I caught ended flapping in the wind and was blown off the hook. I decided the pole wasn't the answer so thought I would have a go on the waggler and maggot. So set this up with the float set well over depth. My feeding was quite good due to the wind being consistent and helping with the distance. I started to catch a 1 oz Ronnie every cast which surprised me because the presentation was still awful. I did hook a 10 lb Carp which went in the margin sedges which I did persuade to come out but it had another run in him and snapped my 0.14 hook length. I stayed on the wagger for the rest of the match putting circa 100 Ronnies in the net.

My lonely Carp weighed 4 lb 6 oz and my Ronnies 5 lb 4 oz for third in Silvers.

The match was one by Tom Baker (pictured right with the smiling Silvers winner) with 81 lb 8 oz from peg 19. Tom caught at 13 metres using sweet corn hook bait fished over hard 4's.

The Sivers was won by Smilier Paul Haines with 7 lb 12 oz from peg 16. Paul fished 13 metres using maggot over maggot and micro feed.

Result:

1. Tom Baker 81-08-0 peg 18
2. John Osborne 54-15-0 Golden peg 21
3. Scott Hedford 37 05 0 peg 23

Silvers:

1. Paul Haines 7-2-0 peg 16
2. Glenn Bailey 7-05-0 peg 24
3. Mike Nicholls 5-04-0 peg 2

Weigh Sheet: